The battle for the Howard County girls’ basketball championship will come down to two games this week between three teams within striking distance of the county’s top spot.

River Hill, Howard and Reservoir all enter the regular season’s final week with a shot at the county championship. That slate of games begins Tuesday night when Reservoir (15-2, 15-2 in the county) takes on Howard (18-2, 15-2) on the road. The game is a rematch of the Gators’ most recent loss, at home Jan. 4 against the Lions. Since then, Reservoir has won nine games, eight by double figures. Howard enters the game on a nine-game win streak of its own, seven of which have come by at least 10 points.

“Our last two seasons have ended in playoff losses at Howard,” Reservoir Coach Kyle Sullivan said. “So we know either way, pretty much every year the roads to winning championships lead through Howard. If they want to win, they’ve got to beat the best.”

Both Howard and River Hill control their own destinies as they relate to the county championship. Both the Lions and the Hawks would claim the county title if they’re able to win both of their games this week.

Host B.J. Koubaroulis runs through the top plays from high school basketball games in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. (Nick Plum for Synthesis/Koubaroulis LLC./The Washington Post)

For Reservoir to win the county, the Gators would have to beat Howard Tuesday night, then turn around and cheer for the Lions to beat River Hill Thursday, dropping the Hawks into a first-place tie with Reservoir. The Gators hold the tiebreaker over River Hill by virtue of their 49-24 victory in the only regular season meeting between the two.

“It’s funny because, on the flip side, we’ve got to beat them and then we need them to help us on Thursday,” Sullivan said. “The last week of the season is pretty crazy. A lot of things could go a lot of different ways, and we won’t know who’s county champs until probably the last night after the last game.”

Comments our editors find particularly useful or relevant are displayed in Top Comments, as are comments by users with these badges: . Replies to those posts appear here, as well as posts by staff writers.

To pause and restart automatic updates, click "Live" or "Paused". If paused, you'll be notified of the number of additional comments that have come in.

Comments our editors find particularly useful or relevant are displayed in Top Comments, as are comments by users with these badges: . Replies to those posts appear here, as well as posts by staff writers.